WRITTEN BY ERIC V.
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The Tribe Of Gypsies got their start in Southern California back in 1992. They are a Latin Rock band with an undeniable Santana influence. The group was formed by Roy Z., who was the guitarist for the band Driver from 1988-91 which disbanded when Rob Rock took a gig with the band Impellitteri as their lead singer. Roy is best known as the producer, writer and guitarist for Bruce Dickinson’s solo albums and band as well as producing and co-writing for Rob Halford’s solo project Halford.

At the end of 1991 Roy was residing in the New England area and he decided to stay for a little while longer to see what he truly wanted to do after the demise of Driver. Contemplating his next step, he came up with a plan. Roy exclusively told Kick Ass Forever “I came up with my concept The Tribe Of Gypsies right then and there. My good friend BJ Zampa (House Of Lords) was playing with us and I said, ‘hey BJ, I need your help. I want to do this thing with the Latin vibe’. He totally got into it and he really helped me out a lot. I modeled the band after three bands. The first band was Sly Stone, the other one was the Woodstock version of Hendrix and Traffic. Sly had this multi-cultural group. Same with Hendrix and Traffic to me, it was like they had no rules”.

Upon returning back home to California, Roy along with Robbyn Garcia and Kelly Pattrik recorded a 5-song demo consisting of the songs “Nothing Lasts Forever”, “I’m So Close”, “If You Need Somebody” (which later became “Guajira” from their debut album), “City Of Dreams” and “Voodoo Man”.  Shortly after recording this demo they were signed to Dream Circle Records based out of Germany.

In late 1992 they went into the studio to record their full-length album with Shay Baby. Their debut album was initially recorded with David Young on vocals. “Mike Varney at the time was overseeing the project”, Roy says. “We really appealed to the Bay Area. Mike Varney got Herbie Herbert into it and all the Santana guys. Mike heard everything and said we got a bunch of flat notes from the singer, ask the singer to re-cut. Once I really listened he was right.  I presented the list to David and he refused to do it. Him refusing to do it put me in a tight spot.” Shortly after this David was asked to leave the band.

The band then recruited Dean Ortega from the band Neverland to replace him. Dean went into the studio to re-record all the vocals for the album. The band consisted of Roy Z. – Guitars, Dean Ortega – Vocals, Eddie Casillas – Bass, David Ingraham – Drums, Mario Aguilar – Percussion and Doug Van Booven (RIP) on Congas, Percussion and Vocals. At the same time, Shay Baby was mixing the Tribes album, he was working with Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden on his second full-length solo album. “Bruce’s wife was coming in so they gave him the day off and he forgot. I walked in and I hear my song “Firedance” blasting.  I see this guy with long hair headbanging hair flying everywhere to my shit. Who is this motherfucker right here? I waited for the song to finish and I said, “what’s going here?” and Shay said: “there he is!” “Hey man, I’m Bruce, I love ya”. Then I realized it was Bruce Dickinson. I just watched him rock out to the whole tune”. Bruce, loving what he heard, brought the band to the attention of his long-time management team of Rod Smallwood and Andy Taylor with Sanctuary Artist Management. They signed the band and worked out a worldwide deal with Mercury Records, who bought out their previous contract with Dream Circle. Bruce also, recruited the guys to record his “Balls To Picasso” album.

Due to the ever-changing world and politics of the music industry, the Tribe was dropped from their record label and their album was shelved. According to Roy, “Mercury Records let go their VP, then the President and then the A&R guy. Phillips (Consolidated Electronics Industries Corp., owner of Mercury Records) was losing a lot of money. The only thing keeping it alive was Bon Jovi and Kiss. There were three other places that would have been perfect for the group and would have changed the perception of who we are and we would probably have been more cemented in history. Ted Templeman and Roberta Petersen really wanted us (Warner Bros.), Sylvia Rhone, through Derek Oliver (ATCO) and Walter Yetnikoff (VelVel). I broke Walter’s heart when I signed with Mercury. Mercury pushed our record because Bon Jovi was putting a record out. We agreed because it would be stupid to put a record out at the same time. Then they changed presidents and the new one was an R&B guy, so he didn’t get it. In the end, they screwed us. I sued Mercury and got my record back. I then booked a gig at one of the first South By Southwest (SXSW). Ed Epstein went around and told all the A&R guys at SXSW that we were his band, that we were signed to Mercury. We weren’t anymore. Sabotage!” With the album now complete, all that needed to be secured was a record deal. Roy then found a home with JVC/Victor in Japan and their self-titled debut album finally got released on September 21, 1996.

TRIBE OF GYPSIES – THINKING OF YOU LIVE BOURBON SQUARE 11-4-95

TRIBE OF GYPSIES – PARTY “EDDIE’S THUMB” 11-4-95

The band went back into the studio at the request of the record label so they could capitalize on the opportunity of the band playing Japan with Bruce Dickinson for the Accident Of Birth tour. They also opened for Bruce on the Japanese leg of that tour. The Tribe pulled double duty for these shows.  Japan is one of the markets that would rarely bring over a band to play without new music to promote. The band went into the studio and recorded an EP titled “Nothing Lasts Forever”. This consisted of the songs “Nothing Lasts Forever”, “Gangland” with Rey Oropeza from Downset on the rap vocals, “Turnaround”, “I’m A Man” (Spencer Davis Group cover), “Melena” and “Oh Well” (Fleetwood Mac cover). The EP was released on August 21, 1997.

The band then had interest and an offer from Univision Records to release their first album in Spanish. When Roy brought this to the band and discussed it, he realized that Dean was not on the same page as everyone else and he decided to part ways with him. This did not stop the band from writing and recording songs for their next release. “Mike Varney to the rescue. “There was a singer I heard in this band and he would fit perfectly.” I followed up and heard Seventhsign and I called Gregg Analla (RIP). Gregg then flew out here and the first song we wrote together was “Summer Rain”. We had a bunch of instrumentals written already. I picked him up at Burbank airport. It was five minutes to the studio. 15 minutes in I played him the song. An hour later he had a rough draft and that night we cut it. We were blown away. We partied the whole night. The whole band. The guys broke out the rum and the drums. Then Gregg became our brother. It was family.  He knocked it out in a week, backgrounds and all. We would do a complete song in one day. Sometimes two songs”.  The Tribe’s second full-length album “Revolucion 13” and first with Gregg on vocals, was released in Japan on November 21, 1998.

 

Released in Japan on January 1, 2000, through JVC/Victor “Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants” (on Bruce Dickinson’s Air Raid Records label for the U.K. which was renamed “III” for that territory because Oasis was releasing an album with the same title) is the third full length album by the Tribe. It is also the second and final full album with Gregg Analla on lead vocals. This album is also the first album of all new material released by any band in the new millennium. Recorded once again at Silver Cloud Studios “Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants” is the first release that was not solely produced by Roy. Roy enlisted world-renowned Producers/Engineers Richie Polodor and Bill Cooper. They are most well-known for producing and engineering records for Three Dog Night, Steppenwolf and Iron Butterfly. For the recording of this album, the Tribe had their most significant line-up change to date. The band now consisted of Roy Z. – Guitar, Gregg Analla – Vocals, David Ingraham – Drums, Elvis Balladares – Percussion, Ray Rodriguez – Keyboards and Juan Perez – Bass. Their biggest break to date came when they were asked to open several west coast shows for Santana in October 2000.

TRIBE OF GYPSIES – RAYS OF THE SUN OFFICIAL VIDEO

On the heels of a great year with worldwide press including a write up in Billboard Magazine and tour dates with Carlos Santana the Tribe found themselves back in the studio to begin work on a new album.  There were several hurdles thrown at them over the next few years which included Gregg Analla leaving the band to return to Albuquerque, New Mexico, due to personal reasons and David Ingraham leaving to join The Young Dubliners as their permanent drummer. The band then enlisted Chas West who is best known for his stints in the bands Bonham, Foreigner and Lynch Mob to take over lead vocals, David Moreno on Drums and Christian Byrne on Bass. “Chas came to us after auditioning a bunch of singers. It is very hard to sing in the Tribe. Chas was the right fit at the time. We worked hard with Richie Polodor and Bill Copper and we all brought it home. Chas was a brother who was there for us when we needed him. I actually just finished working on his new album “WestWard Bound” coming out on Frontiers Records”.  The album “Dweller On The Threshold” was released on July 20, 2006.

 

Over the next 11 years, the band played a handful of select shows and had some line-up changes, with the most notable being vocalist Phil Diamond.  Roy states, “We found Phil from a guy who was working for us at the time and we put the word out. We also did an ad in the paper and we found him that way. He was here on a work visa from Greece. He’s an incredible singer and great songwriter”. They released via download on their Facebook page, their performance at the Rock Of Ages Open Air Festival in Festplatz, Seebronn, Germany on July 26, 2014. They also recorded and released a video in 2016 for the song “Yeah!”

TRIBE OF GYPSIES – YEAH! OFFICIAL VIDEO

Before the passing of Gregg Analla, Roy and Gregg reconnected. “Gregg and I had a lengthy conversation last summer and he said “Tribe is where I belong. I wanna do another Tribe record. Start sending me stuff.” So I did. I started sending him stuff. He was working on things. 18 tunes were sent to Gregg and he wouldn’t send me anything until it was done. He had the stuff for six months with three of the songs for him to even write lyrics on. We are going to release a “Summer Rain” Lyric Video dedicated to Gregg”.

During this extremely difficult time, Roy and the band are going through, they are taking time to mourn the loss of their dear friend. The plans the band had have now been pushed to next year. “My goal for next year is to re-release everything on vinyl and cassette with tracks that did not make it to the original records”. Roy also has a digital covers album that will be released sometime in 2018.

As the writer of this article, I just wanted to give a little background of how I stumbled on to the Tribe Of Gypsies. It was 1994 and Bruce Dickinson released his new solo album “Balls To Picasso”. Of course, I went down to my favorite local record store Slipped Disc Records in Valley Stream, NY to pick it up along with the import CD Singles with bonus unreleased B-sides. It was such a great album. There isn’t a bad track on it. Even the B-sides were solid and didn’t disappoint.  As I am looking through the booklet to see who played on the album, the band was listed as The Tribe Of Gypsies.  Roy Z. – Guitar, Eddie Casillas – Bass Guitar, David Ingraham – Drums and Doug Van Booven – Percussion. Who were The Tribe Of Gypsies and why have I not heard of them before?

It is now 1996 and Bruce has released “Skunkworks”. What happened to Roy Z. and the other guys? Why are there all new players? The last album was amazing. Why would Bruce change his band? I later found out that The Tribe Of Gypsies had a record deal and released their self-titled debut album in Japan. I definitely had to get it. I finally tracked down the album in mid-to-late 1997. I was able to get it along with their EP “Nothing Lasts Forever”. After listening to their debut album once I fell in love with it and the band. The grooves, the passion, soul and feeling that emanated from those speakers as I listened to each and every track just sucked me right in. Roy Z. and the Tribe were on fire and you can feel every note they played. Each song was equally as good if not better than the previous one. Next up was the EP and it was just a continuation of the first album. Some of my favorite tracks from their first album are “En Mi Barrio”, “In The Middle”, “Walking On Water”, “We All Bleed Red” and “I’m So Close”.  My favorite tracks off the EP are “Nothing Lasts Forever”, “Gangland” and “Turnaround”. Their covers of “I’m A Man” and “Oh Well”, were great renditions and definitely do not disappoint.  My favorite cover that the band did comes off their third album “Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants”, “Parisienne Walkways”. This Gary Moore classic off his 1978 “Back On The Streets” album was co-written and sung by the late great Phil Lynott from Thin Lizzy. The passion and soul that comes across from Roy’s playing combined with Gregg’s singing makes this song one of the best covers I have ever heard from any band. Absolute perfection! Other stand-out tracks from the album are “The Flower” which was co-written with Bruce Dickinson. Roy stated, “”The Flower” was written while on tour with Bruce in Bulgaria. I was listening to a lot of Peter Green. I got a riff out of it. I was putting it down to my Sony cassette recorder. Bruce walked in and he started singing. He was like “That’s awesome what is that?” I was like I am thinking about this for the Tribe. That’s great mate. Let’s do it again. I’ve got a lyric now. And this was after Soundcheck! I was like ok and he came up with this whole flower thing and I was like this is really cool and interesting. This is how it all came about, very natural”. “Rays Of The Sun”, “What Cha Want” and “Dreams”. My favorite tracks from “Revolucion 13” are the instrumental title track “Revolucion 13”, “What’s Up”, “Landslide”  and “Spanish Blue”. The last two minutes of that song are just blistering! Don’t forget their last album “Dweller On The Threshold”, as this is probably my least favorite album, it is a solid album that you don’t want to pass up. “Ride On”, Desolate Child”, “After The Summer” and “Hands To Eternity” are my favorites from this album.

The Tribe, have been a staple in my life for over 20 years. I can’t even count the number of times I have played each album. They are one of my favorite bands. If you are a fan of Hard Rock, Latin Rock or just great music with soul and passion, you definitely need to check out The Tribe of Gypsies. With four full-length albums and an EP under their belts, they have yet to disappoint.